Elementary
I finally caught up with this show. There seem many comparisons between Elementary (CBS US) and Sherlock (BBC UK) out in the field, which I find pointless. Sherlock is a modernized version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. I love that show. It is very, very close to the original stories. Elementary on the other hand has nothing really to do with Doyle’s Holmes. It does borrow some features of it, like the character’s names and the methodology on “deduction”. But the characters and stories are completely US TV crime. One could rather compare it to series like CSI and Mr. Monk, as in fact, Elementary seems a more serious version of Mr. Monk.
It took a while for me to get used to the show. In the beginning, I found the character of Sherlock Holmes a bit overdrawn. He acts like a mad addict with barely any compassion for anything but himself and solving crimes. Not in a decent way, like portrayed by Jeremy Brett back in the 80s. Jonny Lee Miller does it rather blunt than subtle. I’ve seen Miller before, as the empathic Jordan Chase in Dexter, where I liked his role playing better. But maybe he does what they want him to do for Elementary. And with Lucy Liu a.k.a. Dr. Joan Watson he got a quite illustrious side-kick. Turning Sherlocks Partner into a woman works out quite well for the show. And there could not be a bigger difference in character than there is with Joan versus John Watson.
No doubt, I’ll continue watching this show. It is quite comparable to The Mentalist and Mr. Monk with respect to having a genius in crime-solving, but Elementary has its very own character types, which make a good show work.
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